T Level students from a Hampshire college have completed their first few weeks of work placements at Solent NHS Trust.
Alfie, Grace and Jessica, all 17, are in their second year of a T Level Health and Nursing course at HSDC Havant & South Downs College. Over the past few weeks, they have gained valuable NHS experience by undertaking their placements across a variety of teams at Solent. These include Child and Families teams, the Urgent Community Response Team and the Spinnaker Inpatient Ward, a specialist patient rehabilitation facility for those with complex physical disabilities.
The placements were facilitated by Solent NHS Trust’s Adult Services Portsmouth Placements Team after being introduced to the college by the 350+ NHS Careers Programme’s T Level specialist, Emma Gotz. 350+ is working across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to grow the number of placement opportunities for T Level students in NHS Trusts and Primary Care settings.
Introduced in September 2020, T Levels are a vocational qualification aimed at 16-18 year-olds. Equivalent to three A Levels, they give young people the opportunity to gain work experience via a 45-day placement, complementing the learning they do in class. The placement can happen any time in a student’s second year and can be split into different blocks of time.
Emma, Strategic T Level Coordinator for the 350+ NHS Careers Programme, says: “T Levels present a very exciting opportunity for students and the NHS alike. They give young people who have made a commitment to vocational learning a very practical insight into how the NHS works, and for the NHS it’s the chance to develop our future workforce through engaging work placements. We as a team will continue to develop strong relationships between colleges and our NHS Trusts to facilitate more placements across the region.”
The students will be back at Solent in December for another week’s placement and again next January, February and June.
Sharon McCann, Head of Quality and Professions at Solent NHS Trust, says: “It’s been a real pleasure to host Alfie, Grace and Jessica. They’ve applied themselves brilliantly to the NHS environment and been keen learners. We are excited to welcome them back in December.”
Do you have a question about T Level placements? Whether you are part of an NHS Trust that could host students, or from a local college looking to place T Level students, you can speak with a member of our 350+ NHS Careers T Level team. Just complete the contact form under the ‘Contact’ tab to get started.
